Two Irrational Numbers That Give the Last Non-Zero Digits of
n! and nn .
Gregory P. Dresden
Washington & Lee University
Lexington, VA 24450
We begin by looking at the pattern formed from the last (i.e. unit) digit of nn .
Since 11 = 1, 22 = 4, 33 = 27, 44 = 256, and so on, we can easily calculate the
first few numbers in our pattern to be 1, 4, 7, 6, 5, 6, 3, 6 . . .. We construct a decimal
number N = 0.d1 d2 d3 . . . dn . . . such that the nth digit dn of N is the last (i.e. unit)
digit of nn ; that is, N = 0.14765636 . . .. In a recent paper [1], R. Euler and J. Sadek
showed that this N is a rational number with a period of twenty digits:
N = 0.14765636901636567490.
This is a nice result, and we might well wonder if it can be extended. Indeed, Euler
and Sadek in [1] recommend looking at the last non-zero digit of n! (If we just looked
at the last digit of n!, we would get a very dull pattern of all 0’s, as n! ends in 0 for
every n ≥ 5.)
With this is mind, let’s define lnzd(A) to be the last nonzero digit of the positive
integer A; it is easy to see that lnzd(A) = A/10i mod 10, where 10i is the largest
power of 10 that divides A. We wish to investigate not only the pattern formed by
lnzd(n!), but also the pattern formed by lnzd(nn ). In accordance with [1], we define
the “factorial” number F = 0.d1 d2 d3 . . . dn . . . to be the infinite decimal such that
each digit dn = lnzd(n!), and we define the “power” number P = 0.d1 d2 d3 . . . dn . . .
to be the infinite decimal such that each digit dn = lnzd(nn ), and we ask whether
these numbers are rational (i.e. are eventually-repeating decimals) or irrational.
Although the title of this article gives away the secret, we’d like to point out
that at first glance, our “factorial” number F exhibits a suprisingly high degree of
regularity, and a fascinating pattern occurs. The first few digits of F are easy to
calculate:
Dresden
2
1! = 1
5! = 120
10! = 3628800
2! = 2
6! = 720
11! = 39916800
3! = 6
7! = 5040
12! = 479001600
4! = 24
8! = 40320
13! = 6227020800
9! = 362880 . . .
14! = 87178291200
...
Reading the underlined digits, we have:
F = 0.1264 22428 88682 . . .
Continuing along this path, we have (to forty-nine decimal places):
F = 0.1264 22428 88682 88682 44846 44846 88682 22428 22428 66264 . . .
It is not hard to show that (after the first four digits) F breaks up into five-digit
blocks of the form x x 2x x 4x, where x ∈ {2, 4, 6, 8}, and the 2x and 4x are taken
mod 10. Furthermore, if we represent these five-digit blocks by symbols (2̇ for 22428,
4̇ for 44846, 6̇ for 66264, 8̇ for 88682, and 1̇ for the initial four-digit block of 1264),
we have:
F = 0.1̇
2̇
8̇
8̇
4̇
4̇
8̇
2̇
2̇
6̇
...
Grouping these symbols into blocks of five and then performing more calculations
(with the aid of Maple) give us F to 249 decimal places:
F = 0.1̇2̇8̇8̇4̇ 4̇8̇2̇2̇6̇ 2̇4̇6̇6̇8̇ 4̇8̇2̇2̇6̇ 4̇8̇2̇2̇6̇ 8̇6̇4̇4̇2̇ 2̇4̇6̇6̇8̇ 6̇2̇8̇8̇4̇ 2̇4̇6̇6̇8̇ 2̇4̇6̇6̇8̇ . . .
The reader will notice additional patterns in these blocks of five symbols (twenty-five
digits). In fact, such patterns exist for any block of size 5i . However, a pattern is
different from a period, and doesn’t imply that our decimal F is rational. Consider
the classic example of 0.1 01 001 0001 00001 000001 . . ., which has an obvious pattern
but is obviously irrational. It turns out that our decimal F is also irrational, as the
following theorem indicates:
Theorem 1. Let F = 0.d1 d2 d3 . . . dn . . . be the infinite decimal such that each
digit dn = lnzd(n!). Then, F is irrational.
As for our “power” number P , it too might seem to be rational at first glance.
P is only slightly different from Euler and Sadek’s rational number N, as seen here:
N
= 0.14765 63690 16365 67490 14765 63690 16365 67490 . . .
and P
= 0.14765 63691 16365 67496 14765 63699 16365 67496 . . .
Dresden
3
(Again, calculations were performed by Maple.) Despite this striking similarity
between P and N , it turns out that P , like F , is irrational:
Theorem 2. Let P = 0.d1 d2 d3 . . . dn . . . be the infinite decimal such that each
digit dn = lnzd(nn ). Then, P is irrational.
Before we begin with the (slightly technical) proofs, let us pause and see if we
can get a feel for why these two numbers must be irrational. There is no doubt
that both F and P are highly “regular”, in that both exhibit a lot of repetition.
The problem is that there are too many patterns in the digits, acting on different
scales. Taking P , for example, we note that there is an obvious pattern (as shown
by Euler and Sadek in [1]) repeating every 20 digits with 11 , 22 , 33 , . . . , 99 and
1111 , 1212 , . . . , 1919 , but this is broken by a similar pattern for 1010 , 2020 , . . . , 9090
and 110110 . . . 190190 , which repeats every 200 digits. This, in turn, is broken by
another pattern repeating every 2000, and so on. A similar behaviour is found for
F , but in blocks of 5, 25, 125, and so on, as mentioned above. So, in vague terms,
there are always “new patterns” starting up in the digits of P and of F , and this is
what makes them irrational.
Are there some simple observations that we can make about P and F which
might help us to prove our theorems? To start with, we might notice that every
digit of F (except for the first one) is even. Can we prove this? Yes, and without
much difficulty:
Lemma 1. For n ≥ 2, then lnzd(n!) is in {2, 4, 6, 8}.
Proof: The lemma is certainly true for n = 2, 3, 4. For n ≥ 5, we note that the prime
factorization of n! contains more 2’s than 5’s, and thus even after taking out all the
10’s in n!, the quotient will still be even. To be precise, the number of 5’s in n! (and
thus the number of trailing zeros in its base-10 representation) is e5 =
which is strictly less than the number of 2’s, e2 =
∞ h
X
∞ h
X
i
n/5i ,
i=1
i
n/2i (here, [·] represents
i=1
the greatest integer function). Hence, n!/10e5 is an even integer not divisible by 10,
and so lnzd(n!) = n!/10e5 mod 10, which must be in {2, 4, 6, 8}. This completes the
proof.
Another helpful observation is to note that the lnzd function appears to be
multiplicative. For example,
lnzd(12) · lnzd(53) = 2 · 3 = 6,
and
lnzd(12 · 53) = lnzd(636)
= 6.
Dresden
4
However, we note that at times this “rule” fails:
lnzd(15) · lnzd(22) = 5 · 2 = 10,
yet
lnzd(15 · 22) = lnzd(330)
= 3.
So, we can only prove a limited form of multiplicativity, but it is useful none the
less:
Lemma 2. Suppose a, b are integers such that lnzd(a) 6= 5, lnzd(b) 6= 5. Then,
lnzd is multiplicative; that is, lnzd(a · b) = lnzd(a) · lnzd(b) mod 10.
Proof: Let x0 denote the integer x without its trailing zeros; that is, x0 = x/10i ,
where 10i is the largest power of 10 dividing x. (Note that lnzd(x) = x0 mod 10.)
By hypothesis, a0 and b0 are both 6= 0 mod 5, and so (a · b)0 6= 0 mod 5 and so
(a · b)0 = a0 · b0 . Thus,
lnzd(a · b) = lnzd((a · b)0 ) = lnzd(a0 · b0 ) = a0 · b0 mod 10
= (a0 mod 10) · (b0 mod 10) = lnzd(a0 ) · lnzd(b0 ) = lnzd(a) · lnzd(b).
This completes the proof.
We are now ready to supply the proof of Theorem 1, in which we show that F
is irrational. The proof is a little technical, but it relies first on assuming that F
has a repeating decimal expansion, then on choosing an appropriate multiple of the
period λ0 and choosing an appropriate digit d, in order to arrive at a contradiction.
Proof of Theorem 1: We argue by contradiction. Suppose F is rational. Then F
is eventually periodic; let λ0 be the period (i.e. for every n sufficiently large, then
dn = dn+λ0 ). Write λ0 = 5i · K such that 56 | K (we acknowledge that K could be 1)
and let λ = 2i · λ0 = 10i · K. Then, lnzd(λ) = lnzd(K), and since 56 | K, then 106 | K
and so lnzd(K) = K mod 10. Note also that lnzd(2λ) = 2K mod 10. Choose M
sufficiently large so that both of the following are true: lnzd(10M +λ) = lnzd(λ) (this
can easily be done by demanding that 10M > λ), and for all n ≥ M , then dn = dn+λ0 ,
which of course would then equal dn+λ . Finally, let d = lnzd((10M −1)!). By Lemma
1, d ∈ {2, 4, 6, 8}, and since 10M ! = (10M − 1)! · 10M , then d also equals lnzd(10M !).
Since λ is a multiple of the period λ0 , then if we let A = 10M − 1 + λ and
B = 10M − 1 + 2λ, then:
d = lnzd((10M − 1)!) = lnzd(A!) = lnzd(B!)
and
d = lnzd(10M !) = lnzd((A + 1)!) = lnzd((B + 1)!)
Let’s now look at the last two terms in the above equation; it is here we will find
our contradiction. Note that since lnzd(A!) = d, then lnzd(A!) 6= 5. Also, since
Dresden
5
lnzd(A + 1) = lnzd(10M + λ) = lnzd(λ) = K mod 10, we know that lnzd(A + 1) 6= 5.
Thus, we can apply Lemma 2 to lnzd(A! · (A + 1)) to get:
d = lnzd((A + 1)!) = lnzd(A!) · lnzd(A + 1) = d · K mod 10.
Likewise, working with B, we find:
d = lnzd((B + 1)!) = lnzd(B!) · lnzd(B + 1) = d · 2K mod 10.
Combining these two equations, we get:
d = dK mod 10
d = 2dK mod 10,
and this becomes d(1 − K) = 0 = d(1 − 2K) mod 10. Since d is even, this implies
that 1 − K = 0 mod 5 and 1 − 2K = 0 mod 5, which is a contradiction. Thus, there
can be no period λ0 and so F is irrational. This completes the proof.
We now turn our attention to the “power” number P derived from the last nonzero digits of nn . This part was more difficult, but a major step was the discovery
that the sequence lnzd(100100 ), lnzd(200200 ), lnzd(300300 ) . . . was the same as the
sequence lnzd(1004 ), lnzd(2004 ), lnzd(3004 ) . . .. This relies not only on the fact that
4|100 but also on the fact that ab = ab+4 mod 10 for b > 0, as used in the following
lemma:
Lemma 3. Suppose 100 | x. Then, lnzd(xx ) = (lnzd x)4 mod 10.
Proof: As in Lemma 2, let x0 denote the integer x without its trailing zeros; that is,
x0 = x/10i , where 10i is the largest power of 10 dividing x. Now,
i 0
lnzd(xx ) = lnzd((10i x0 )10 x )
i 0
i
0
= lnzd((10i·10 x )(x0 )10 ·x )
i
0
= lnzd((x0 )10 ·x ).
i
0
Since 106 | x0 , then 106 | (x0 )10 ·x , and so:
i
0
lnzd(xx ) = (x0 )10 ·x mod 10.
Since 100 | x, then 4 | 10i · x0 , and since (x0 )n = (x0 )n+4 mod 10 for every positive
n, we have:
lnzd(xx ) = (x0 )4 mod 10
= (lnzd x)4 mod 10.
This completes the proof.
Dresden
6
With Lemma 3 at our disposal, the proof of Theorem 2 is now fairly easy.
Proof of Theorem 2: Again, we argue by contradiction. Suppose P is rational. Let
λ0 be the period, and choose j sufficiently large such that 10j > 2000 · λ0 and
j
j
such that lnzd((10j + nλ0 )10 +nλ0 ) = lnzd((10j )10 ) for every positive n. Choosing
n = 200, we get:
lnzd((10j + 200λ0 )10
j +200λ
0
j
) = lnzd((10j )10 ).
We reduce the left side of the above equation by Lemma 3 (note that lnzd(10j +
200λ0 ) = lnzd(2λ0 )), and the right side is obviously 1, so we have:
(lnzd 2λ0 )4 mod 10 = 1
Note that lnzd(2λ0 ) can only be 2, 4, 6, or 8, and raising these to the fourth power
mod 10 gives us:
6 = 1,
which is a contradiction. Thus, P is irrational. This completes the proof.
We close by asking the obvious (and very difficult) question: Are F and P
algebraic or transcendental? I suspect the latter, but it is only a hunch, and I hope
some curious reader will continue along this interesting line of study.
References
[1] R. Euler and J. Sadek, A number that gives the unit digit of nn , Journal of
Recreational Mathematics, 29 (1998) No. 3, pp. 203–4.